The Top 10 Football Fanbases in the World

Every football fanbase thinks they’re the best and of course they can’t be blamed for that, it’s loyalty to the club afterall. A club that they might have been supporting for years, maybe even decades. But which club really has the best fanbase in the world, find out as FootballBias ranks the top 10 football club clubs by fan base.

10. Manchester City

The blue side of Manchester has experienced more success in the last 15 years than the preceding 100+ years before it and their fanbase has of course increased over the years but for some, therein lies the problem, the concept of “Plastic fans” has always been like a shadow over the club’s fanbase and City fans in turn desperately throw their legends into conversations they simply do not belong in to try and gain some form of relevance. On the positive side, the fans absolutely ride out for their club and its players especially when said players are facing backlash e.g Phil Foden.

9. Boca Juniors

South American football is brutal and intense. It’s perhaps the most emotional continent where football is played, which is justified because they’ve generally produced some of the greatest of all time and while their “Superclassico” rivals River Plate slightly misses out on this list, no one represents that emotion and intensity more than Boca Juniors fans.

8. Arsenal

If this list was strictly for the most loyal fanbase or the most delusional fanbase, they would quite easily be number 1, because let’s face it, Arsenal fans are desperately loyal to their club, trophyless as it may be in recent times, but that loyalty and belief is what makes them almost insufferable. It’s why fans from other fanbases don’t want them in particular to win anything, I mean, just imagine if Arsenal wins a Champions League, their fans would term them the biggest club in football history.

7. Bayern Munich

Bayern fans are generally not too loud, it’s like old money, they don’t need to argue too much because they know they probably have a better head to head against whatever club you support but this quietness is a double-edged sword as it tends to drown them out of certain arguments and conversations, especially when it comes to comparisons with other clubs’ legends. The fanbase of course tries to counteract this by rubbing shoulders with Real Madrid fans, until Madrid beats them and they start screaming “robbery!”

6. Manchester United

In direct contrast with their blue side counterparts, the red side of Manchester has faced tough times since Sir Alex Ferguson left and the fanbase practically lives in the past now. They are super defensive of the club though and as much as they are suffering currently, they do not take disrespect(banter) from fanbases of clubs they consider smaller than theirs lightly.

5. Liverpool

With Liverpool fans, it’s “stay in your lane and we’ll stay in ours” . Although it’s a bit weird that most of their bragging rights from the last 10 years comes from the sentence “we competed with peak Man City”, as if that puts any trophies in their cabinet. They do have actual trophies to brag about though, and they do it whenever the opportunity arises. The Anfield atmosphere is also one of the most respected in Europe.

4. Barcelona

Culers believe firmly that they’re the biggest football institution in the world and while that may be up for debate, what isn’t is their unshakeable passion for “good” football and winning by thoroughly outplaying their opponents. The fanbase will also defend their club and its players till eternity. This sometimes blind defense is what puts them just outside the top 3, alongside the constant overpraising of their academy, La Masia, as though they didn’t nearly go bankrupt after spending so much on signings between 2017 and 2019.

3. Real Madrid

Madridistas are the most reactionary fanbase in the world, a string of wins and it’s “A por la ‘inserts suitable number’” but one loss and it’s “sell all the players” and while it might be because of the high standards the club is held to by both fans and opponents alike, it can be exhausting when they get like that. Also, their response to any question they find unpalatable is “we have 15 UCLs” but beyond that, the fanbase is perhaps the most graceful, the fans are not ashamed to praise other clubs when they do well, except Barcelona of course. It’s also the biggest fan base in the world according to statistics.

2. Chelsea

The ultimate underdogs, and that’s how the majority of the fanbase behaves, except for the minority that genuinely believes they’re the best club in the world because they won a Club World Cup. Chelsea fans are loyal and supremely passionate, like Arsenal fans, they just also have the trophies to match.

1. Borussia Dortmund

The Yellow Wall has been described as a Crown Jewel of German football and while Dortmund is not exactly the most successful club in the country, its fans are generally respected home and abroad for their class. The Signal Iduna Park is filled to the brim just about every match and the stadium’s atmosphere is almost indisputably the best in the world.